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Books > Humanities > Archaeology > General
From its discovery in the Columbia River shallows three years ago, reporter Roger Downey has chronicled the epic adventures of the skeleton called "Kennewick Man": first as pretext for a media feeding-frenzy, then as centerpiece of a legal circus pitting celebrated scientists against Native Americans, the Corps of Engineers, and the Clinton White House, finally, at the long last, as object of rational scientist study. The saga of Kennewick Man offers abundant opportunity to explore todays rapidly changing scientific theories about how the Americans first came to be settled, and by whom. But it also casts light on the divisions within the fields of anthropology and archaeology concerning the role of politics and race in the pursuit of scientific goals, what constitutes ethical procedure in dealing with ancient remains, and the very purpose and direction of the scientific enterprise itself.
Summer farms occur throughout the world where there are rich
pastures that can only be utilised for part of the year, mainly
because they are under snow and ice during the winter. In Europe
transhumance is often a major event when the cattle and other
livestock leave their home villages and move up into the mountains,
and likewise on their return. The best known sites in Europe are
perhaps those found in the Alpine areas, but they occur everywhere
where there are suitable highland areas to exploit. Traditionally
they have been the subject of the studies of ethnographers and
anthropologists, especially in the second half of the 20th century
when technological and economic changes led to the gradual
abandonment of the farms and to other ways of exploiting the
highlands. The last of these farmers are gradually disappearing and
with them the oral records and memories. Now it is archaeologists
who are leading the recording of this material and also looking at
the history of such farming from prehistory and from the Bronze Age
with the rise in importance of 'Secondary Products' such as cheese
which could be stored for use over winter.Much of the evidence can
only be gathered by surface survey and by excavation, though in
some cases there are good written sources which have yet to be
fully exploited. This volume provides case studies, as well as
brief summaries of other projects in Europe, extending from the
Black Sea in the east to northern Spain and Iceland in the west,
though with a concentration on the Alpine area. One thing that
emerges is the very varied nature of these sites in terms of their
chronology, who went to the farms, the distances travelled, and the
other activities associated with transhumance such as mining. In
some cases the products were primarily for the subsistence of the
agricultural population, but in other cases they were traded and
could produce a large amount of profit. This is the first overview
of these sites in Europe written from an archaeological point of
view.
This manual is designed to take the mysticism out of archaeological
artifact conservation and act as both reference and guide. It is
intended as a tool to assist archaeologists in stabilizing a
majority of the artifacts they excavate, or those already in
storage. These stabilized archaeological collections will be
preserved into the future, permitting reexamination and multiple
interpretations of the data as our knowledge base grows through
time. In addition, conservation will permit improved in-depth
primary artifact interpretation, as fully conserved artifacts
reveal fabrication, wear patterns, and detail impossible to detect
in non-conserved artifacts. Conservation, therefore, is a critical
tool within archaeology, a tool that becomes less meaningful if it
is isolated, or seen as merely a technical skill that can be farmed
out to the "hard sciences." The Archaeologist's Manual for
Conservation is intended as a counterpoint to the popular
specialization trend. My goal in offering this manual is to put
artifacts back in the hands of archaeologists or material culture
specialists who can best decipher them, opening avenues of artifact
or material culture interpretation that are disappearing as
artifacts either decay in storage or are sent away to the
"conservation professionals. - from the Introduction.
This book is the culmination of over 10 years of work and the
merging, expansion, and improvement of 2 previous works:
Conservator's Cookbook and Conservation of Water Soaked Materials
Bibliography. Each chapter covers a particular substance: wood,
iron, copper, glass, ceramic, organic artifacts, textiles, and
leather, composite artifacts.
Chapters begin with a visual flowchart, walking the
archaeologist through a step-by-step stabilization process, backed
in the text by theoretical discussion and description. Practical
methodology follows theory in each chapter giving the archaeologist
a more detailed description of preserving material remains.
Chapters are backed and serviced by the most comprehensive
bibliographic reference available today.
The Archaeologist's Manual for Conservation was developed
through extensive documentary research, laboratory trial and error,
and the feedback of both underwater and terrestrial archaeologists.
It will become an indispensable reference for all archaeologists,
laboratory technicians, archaeology students, curators, and
conservators concerned with simple, proven, non-toxic, artifact
conservation procedures.
At certain times of the day - at sunrise, and sunset - the outlines
of prehistoric fields, barrows and hill-forts in the British
landscape may be thrown into relief. Such 'shadow sites', best seen
from above, and captured by an airborne camera, are both examples
of, and metaphors for, a particular way of seeing the landscape. At
a time of rapid modernisation and urbanisation in
mid-twentieth-century Britain, an archaeological vision of the
British landscape reassured and enchanted a number of writers,
artists, photographers, and film-makers. From John Piper, Eric
Ravilious and Shell guide books, to photographs of bomb damage,
aerial archaeology, and The Wizard of Oz, Kitty Hauser delves into
evocative interpretations of the landscape and looks at the
affinities between photography as a medium to capture traces of the
past as well as their absence.
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There are many ways to study pots or the sherds of pots. In this
book James Skibo has focused on the surface wear and tear found on
the resin-coated, low-fired cooking pots of the Kalinga people in
north western Luzon. This detailed analysis is part of a much
larger evalua tion of Kalinga pottery production and use by the
staff members and students at the University of Arizona that has
been underway since 1972. Here he has analyzed the variants among
the possible residual clues on pots that have endured the stresses
of having been used for cooking meat and vegetables or rice;
standing on supports in the hearth fire; wall scrapings while
distributing the food; being transported to the water source for
thorough washing and scrubbing; followed by storage until needed
again-a repetitive pattern of use. This well-controlled study made
use of new pots provided for cooking purposes to one Kalinga
household, as well as those pots carefully observed in other
households-- 189 pots in all. Such an ethnoarchaeological approach
is not unlike follOwing the course of the firing of a kiln-load of
pots in other cultures, and then purchasing the entire product of
this firing for analysis. Other important aspects of this Kalinga
study are the chemical analysis of extracts from the ware to deduce
the nature of the food cooked in them, and the experimental study
of soot deposited on cooking vessels when they are in use."
It is perhaps a truism to note that ancient religion and rhetoric
were closely intertwined in Greek and Roman antiquity. Religion is
embedded in socio-political, legal and cultural institutions and
structures, while also being influenced, or even determined, by
them. Rhetoric is used to address the divine, to invoke the gods,
to talk about the sacred, to express piety and to articulate, refer
to, recite or explain the meaning of hymns, oaths, prayers, oracles
and other religious matters and processes. The 13 contributions to
this volume explore themes and topics that most succinctly describe
the firm interrelation between religion and rhetoric mostly in, but
not exclusively focused on, Greek and Roman antiquity, offering
new, interdisciplinary insights into a great variety of aspects,
from identity construction and performance to legal/political
practices and a broad analytical approach to transcultural
ritualistic customs. The volume also offers perceptive insights
into oriental (i.e. Egyptian magic) texts and Christian literature.
For more than three millennia the cultures of Mesoamerica
flourished, building the first cities of the Western Hemisphere and
developing writing systems that could rival those of the Eastern
Hemisphere in their creativity and efficiency. The Nahuatl-speaking
Aztecs reigned over one of the greatest imperial civilizations the
Americas had ever seen, and up until now their intricate and
visually stunning hieroglyphs have been overlooked in the story of
writing. In this innovative volume Gordon Whittaker provides the
reader with everything they need to know to appreciate and
understand Aztec hieroglyphs: a step-by-step, illustrated guide of
how to read Aztec glyphs; an explanation of the special features of
this writing system in comparison to others from around the globe;
the story of how this enigmatic language has been deciphered; a
tour through Aztec history as recorded in hieroglyphic codices; and
demonstrations of how the writing system was adapted to
transliterate Spanish words during the Conquest. With 300
illustrations
This is the first book to explore prehistoric warfare and violence
by integrating qualitative research methods with quantitative,
scientific techniques of analysis such as paleopathology,
morphometry, wear analysis, and experimental archaeology. It
investigates early warfare and violence from the standpoint of four
broad interdisciplinary themes: skeletal markers of violence and
weapon training; conflict in prehistoric rock-art; the material
culture of conflict; and intergroup violence in archaeological
discourse. The book has a wide-ranging chronological and geographic
scope, from early Neolithic to late Iron Age and from Western
Europe to East Asia. It includes world-renowned sites and artefact
collections such as the Tollense Valley Bronze Age battlefield
(Germany), the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Tanum (Sweden), and
the British Museum collection of bronze weaponry from the late
Shang period (China). Original case studies are presented in each
section by a diverse international authorship. The study of warfare
and violence in prehistoric and pre-literate societies has been at
the forefront of archaeological debate since the publication of
Keeley's provocative monograph 'War Before Civilization' (Oxford
1996). The problem has been approached from a number of standpoints
including anthropological and behavioural studies of interpersonal
violence, osteological examinations of sharp lesions and
blunt-force traumas, wear analysis of ancient weaponry, and field
experiments with replica weapons and armour. This research,
however, is often confined within the boundaries of the various
disciplines and specialist fields. In particular, a gap can often
be detected between the research approaches grounded in the
humanities and social sciences and those based on the
archaeological sciences. The consequence is that, to this day, the
subject is dominated by a number of undemonstrated assumptions
regarding the nature of warfare, combat, and violence in
non-literate societies. Moreover, important methodological
questions remain unanswered: can we securely distinguish between
violence-related and accidental trauma on skeletal remains? To what
extent can wear analysis shed light on long-forgotten fighting
styles? Can we design meaningful combat tests based on historic
martial arts? And can the study of rock-art unlock the social
realities of prehistoric warfare? By breaking the mould of
entrenched subject boundaries, this edited volume promotes
interdisciplinary debate in the study of prehistoric warfare and
violence by presenting a number of innovative approaches that
integrate qualitative and quantitative methods of research and
analysis.
This book shows how anthropology can provide an innovative
perspective on the human movement into space. It examines
adaptation to space on timescales of generations, rather than
merely months or years, and uses evolutionary adaptation as a
guiding theme. Employing the lessons of evolutionary adaptation,
Principles of Extraterrestrial Anthropology recommends
evolutionarily-sound strategies of space settlement, covering
genetics at the organismal and population levels. The author
organizes the concept of cultural adaptation to environments beyond
Earth according to observed patterns in human adaptation on Earth.
He uses original artwork and tables to help convey complex
information in a form accessible to undergraduate and graduate
students. Though primarily written to engage students interested in
space settlement and exploration, who will eventually build a full
anthropology of space settlement, Principles of Extraterrestrial
Anthropology is engaging to anthropologists across sub-disciplines,
as well as scholars interested in the human dimensions of space
exploration and settlement. Just as the term exobiology was
invented only a few decades ago to shape the field of space life
studies, exoanthropology is outlined to assist in the perpetuation
of Earth life through human space settlement.
Questions of public and private morality, values and choices have
become important areas of collective discussion. A key feature of
this book is that it takes an ethnographic rather than a
philosophical or speculative approach to moral debates. This study
examines the contemporary explosion of ethical discourse in the
public domain and the growing importance of moral rhetoric as an
aspect of social relations.
This comprehensive text is intended for the junior-senior level
course in North American Archaeology. Written by accomplished
scholar Dean Snow, this new text approaches native North America
from the perspective of evolutionary ecology. Succinct, streamlined
chapters present an extensive groundwork for supplementary
material, or serve as a core text.The narrative covers all of
Mesoamerica, and explicates the links between the part of North
America covered by the United States and Canada and the portions
covered by Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and the Greater Antilles.
Additionally, book is extensively illustrated with the author's own
research and findings.
Writing as Material Practice grapples with the issue of writing as
a form of material culture in its ancient and more recent
manifestations, and in the contexts of production and consumption.
Fifteen case studies explore the artefactual nature of writing -
the ways in which materials, techniques, colour, scale, orientation
and visibility inform the creation of inscribed objects, spaces and
landscapes, as well as structure subsequent engagement, perception
and meaning making. Covering a temporal span of some 5000 years,
from c.3200 BCE to the present day, and ranging in spatial context
from the Americas to the Near East, the chapters in this volume
bring a variety of perspectives which contribute to both specific
and broader questions of writing materialities. Authors also aim to
place past graphical systems in their social contexts so they can
be understood in relation to the people who created and attributed
meaning to writing and associated symbolic modes through a diverse
array of individual and wider social practices.
Dedicated to Erica Cruikshank Dodd, Art and Material Culture in the
Byzantine and Islamic Worlds offers new perspectives on the
Christian and Muslim communities of the east Mediterranean from
medieval to contemporary times. The contributors examine how people
from diverse religious backgrounds adapted to their changing
political landscapes and show that artistic patronage, consumption,
and practices are interwoven with constructed narratives. The
essays consider material and textual evidence for painted media,
architecture, and the creative process in Byzantium, Crusader-era
polities, the Ottoman empire, and the modern Middle East, thus
demonstrating the importance of the past in understanding the
present. Contributors: Evanthia Baboula, Lesley Jessop, Anthony
Cutler, Jaroslav Folda, John Osborne, Glenn Peers, Annemarie Weyl
Carr, Mat Immerzeel, Bas Snelders, Angela Andersen, May Farhat,
Marcus Milwright, Rico Franses.
Profusely illustrated with full color and black and white maps,
photographs, illustrations. Center of Miliatry history publication
CMH 30-22. Issued with a laminated hard cover that has an
illustration of soldiers standing in front of American flags.
Presents American military history from 1917 to the present.
Includes expanded sections to include an analysis of the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq up to January 2009.
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